Nah, skipping Interbike this year. By the time it rolls around I've seen everybody I need to see and have loads of other more productive stuff to do for a week. As a bike geek I really love the show but as a rep I need to allocate my time to productive stuff. Would have loved to signed up to race Crossvegas even though I'd have gotten slaughtered.

Kind of pointless if you ask me. You still end up with a cable that will need frequent replacement in the mud season. A friend of mine is racing a Giant TCX with the red hydraulic brakes. He really likes them. Says he can brake later than other riders so he says he's faster because of it. He won his first race and got 8 th at star crossed I think in masters 4.

Andy, I see a real plus of having cables leave the brifters, a reason that is as old as cycling that no one ever talks about. Any bike that is ridden on pavement may well crash on that same pavement. And when that happens, it is common to trash the downside lever/brifter. I call a system where that part isn't ridiculously expensive or hard to replace good real world engineering. (I have the same issue with absurdly expensive rear derailleurs. And pedals too precious to scrape?)

Traditionally, cable actuated hydraulic discs have performed like schitt. Rock Shox tried it back in the day, among others. Horrible lever feel and adjust was damn near impossible.

Seems like it would be the "best of both worlds", but in reality it has been a compromise on both.

That said, technology has improved since then so hopefully these TRP brakes feel and perform well. Time will tell, I guess.....but if there is concern about fluid overheating in full-hydraulics, I gotta imagine that it would be much worse with cable-actuatued hydraulics.

As one of the biggest concerns with hydraulic or mechanical road disc brakes is heat management, TRP devised a series of tests to push the HYRD and the Spyre to their limits and then some. In the switchback test, brakes are cycled on and off in 10 second intervals for 88 cycles with 6kg of lever force at 25kph. Testing resulted in an average of 761 watts with a peak in excess of 1000 watts causing the rotor to heat to over 900 degrees f. At these temperatures, the paint on the backing of the brake pads would flake off, but the brakes continued to function.

The second test was termed the scared rider test which involved 10 minutes of continuous lever pull at 3kg of force with the wheel again traveling at 25 kph. This is to simulate exactly what it sounds like – a rider terrified of a steep descent, dragging the brake the whole way down. Again, both brakes passed their testing according to TRP who was quick to point out that the testing did not include the air cooling effect of riding the brakes in normal conditions – as the ambient air rushing over the calipers and rotors would further cool the brakes.

While they wouldn’t say who, TRP mentioned that they purchase their mineral oil from the same source as another famous brake manufacturer, we think you can figure it out. Likewise, TRP pointed out that at those extreme temperatures, glazing of the pads becomes a much bigger issue than the fluid itself boiling. TRP hasn’t set a weight limit on the brakes yet, but they are currently testing both brakes with tandems to guarantee they are adequate. When asked about rotor size, TRP recommended that road riders always use a 160mm rotor in front, but can get away with a 140mm in the rear. In cyclocross-only applications, you should be fine with two 140s.

It is a concern Ben. But my point, poorly articulated, was that one will need a frame and fork that will take a disc caliper plus at the very least new hubs as well as the brakes. Makes much more sense to simply buy an entire new bike with the new bits rather than the other way. You can buy new levers for mountain bike master cylinder/levers so that should not be an issue.

One thing Shimano has been doing for a couple years for mountain bike brakes is their Icetech features. Cooling fins on the brake pads, steel rotors that sandwich an aluminum centre and now finned rotors as well. The XT and XTR brakes work very very well and use mineral oil as the fluid. One finger is all I use on steep Whistler trails and I haven't felt like I was lacking braking power too often. I use a 180 and 160 rotors but I don't weigh much at 142 or so. I ride some silly stuff where I am on the brakes for most of the descent. These are 20-30 percent grades with drops that may last 20 30 minutes without much let up. I would think that road or cross requirements will not be the same as for off road. Maybe road with higher speeds will have more concern with heat? Moto GP bikes have way more brake than motocross bikes.

I remember the Rockshox and other mechanical hydraulic brakes. That was a while ago but they were crappy. Set up my Zipp wheels and Avid Shorty Ultimate brakes last night. What a pain in the petooty. And they still squeak and squawk.

But, Andy, can you crash and trash one of these levers for under $200? A routine crash, skinned knee, torn glove and ripped handlebar tape should not cost that much. That is what I see as the plus of a cable operated system. $30 Tektro levers would work just fine. (Of course, no brifter, but DTs still work and never get trashed in crashed.)

Just the brake lever? For a mountain bike yes. There were all kinds of aftermarket lever blades available for Shimano, SRAM/Avid and others for way less than $200. I believe that Shimano do list small parts like just lever blades as being available. Last time I used downtube shifters I had been used to brifters and my fingers brushed the spokes. No damage but there is absolutely no way i would ever use dt shifters ever again. I don't know what the Tektro mechanically actuated hydraulic system works but I can't imagine it will be better than full hydraulic with no real benefit other than you already own some parts.